Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Hello everyone!I know I'm a few days late in posting this advent calendar but as I like to say (often!) "better late than never!!" So, here are two examples of an advent calendar using our white giftware boxes, giftwrap, ribbon and cardstock. The really great thing about making these advent calendars is that you can customize them for anyone - pink for little girls, blue for boys, hockey theme for big boys or even glittery and blingy for big girls! This first version was created by our Office Manager, Shannon, for her 3 year old niece-

Shannon used our 3" x 3" x 3" white giftware boxes, 25 of them in total, assembled them in five rows of 5 boxes and attached them together with tape. She printed the numbers on white cardstock and then matted them onto pink and lime green cardstock.

The pink and lime green satin bows co-ordinated perfectly with the foil giftwrap Shannon used to wrap around the outside of the boxes.

When assembling the giftboxes, make sure that all the box "tops" are facing the front so you can open them! Shannon chose to have her box tops opening down. This giftbox is an ideal size for any little treasures you may want to give.

Here's a view of the back - these are actually the "bottoms" of the giftboxes, placed on their sides.

This is the second advent calendar sample - this is one that I made for my 3 year old son, Matthew, after I was inspired by the one that Shannon made! I went with the red and blue colour theme for him, his favourite colours!

The only thing a bit different from the sample that Shannon made was that I chose to have my "tops" open upward instead of down like hers. It wasn't so much of a choice as it was a boo-boo that I realized after I glued the first boxes together!! It still worked out in the end.

The advent calendar was fun, quick and easy to make - my version probably took about 2 hours max. to complete and that was mostly due to cutting out the numbers and mats. Matthew has really enjoyed opening his up over the last few days - the little Matchbox firetruck from this morning has been the big hit so far!